Christian Harding
Assoc. Opinion Editor

On April 3, 2014, the Millersville University Student Business Association (also known as the Society for the Advancement of Management) went on a trip to their annual convention, this year held in Orlando, Florida. The group members going on this trip were club President Lauren Cooper, Vice President Vimal Bhargava and Secretary Tyler Durante.

“It was an amazing opportunity to be able to attend this conference, as well as to present there, and also spend some time enjoying Orlando,” said Cooper. “I went to the conference last year in Arlington, Virginia, but it was each of our first times presenting at one, so it was a new experience for all of us.”

Upon arriving in Orlando, the group relocated to the Rosen Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, where they stayed for the remainder of their trip. The conference officially began on April 3 and lasted until April 5. It consisted of a student case competition, where student chapters presented their solutions to a management case problem, and also contained business academics presenting their research papers, with subsequent question and answer sessions.

In the weeks prior to the conference, Cooper and Bhargava worked tirelessly for hours on end to put their presentation together. The general goal of this presentation was regarding how to solve the myriad of problems which have plagued the J.C. Penney Corporation in the last year or two. The fifteen minute presentation was given to a panel of three judges, and consisted of sections on financial, advertising, marketing, and product mix strategies.

But as the saying goes, hard work always pays off, and this conference was no exception, because the MU team won second place out of seven in the undergraduate division for their work on the case. “It was a wonderful surprise to win the award, and it was definitely worth all the time and effort we put into it,” said Cooper.

After the conference was over, the group then had a few more days to spend in Orlando, and enjoyed a well earned break from all the preparations and busywork that encompassed most of their time leading up to the trip. It was a long road, but in the end proved to be worth all the time and effort put into it.